liberate california or create a gay roe v. wade. s acceptance is only growing. kennedy can only give the gay rights movement a decisive final victory. the train that is the gay rights movement cannot be stopped. gays will continue coming out and demanding rights and suing for equality until they win. because as edie said, marriage matters. the opposition can only build dams to hold off the inevitable tidal wave of justice because we're talking about something fundamental in society, the right to choose your nuclear family without being penalized. the right to have your relationship respected. isn't that what the pursuit of happiness is about? for me the pursuit of happiness though is tossing to martin bashir. >> thank you, toure. and you have stolen some of my time so i'm not going to talk to you. good afternoon. it's monday, december the 10th, and this thing is going to get a whole lot uglier before it gets better.

♪ >> we'd like to announce we have reached an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> get in a room and make the changes that are needed. >> it sounds like the president of the united states and mr. boehner met face-to-face. >> i'm not happy. >> go ahead and give the president the 2% increase. >> will i accept a tax increase as a part of a deal to actually solve our problems? yes. >> you know what the republicans do have is they have debt ceiling coming up. joots a slap in the face of all the young people who are out there thinking about being republicans. >> no way around. >> rotten eggs. >> this is impossible. >> i think maybe the republicans have an upper hand. >> if anybody out there who is, quote, rich doesn't think their taxings go up, the drinks are on me. >> beer, and i hope it tastes as good as you all look. ♪

it's a brand new week, and with the fiscal cliff just 22 days away, the president is on the move heading to michigan to rally autoworkers' support for higher taxes on the wealthy and greater investment in u.s. manufacturing. the president traveled to a suburb of detroit touring an engine plant that's announcing a $100 million expansion in production and jobs. and even as the president touted that economic bright spot, he renewed his case to extend tax cuts for 98% of americans that are due to expire at the end of the year. >> how many of you can afford to pay another $2,200 in taxes? not you? >> no! >> that's a hit you can't afford to take. and by the way, that's not a good hit for businesses either. >> the president's urgent push come as the white house and

congress enter the deadline phase in their negotiations to get a deal passed by next friday, the last day congress is in session. president obama and house speaker john boehner know they have to reach agreement this week if there's to be a deal, which is why they met behind closed doors on sunday. spokesmen for both men say that lines of communication remain open with the president reiterating today that he's up for a big deal. >> i have said i will work with republicans on a plan for economic growth, job creation, and reducing our deficits. i'm willing to compromise a little bit. but if we're serious about reducing our deficit, we've also got to be serious about investing in the thiges that help us grow and make the middle class strong. >> as for speaker boehner, he continued his political posturing today with a statement. quote, the republican offer made last week remains the republican offer, and we continue to wait for the president to identify the spending cuts he's willing

to make as part of the balanced approach he promised the american people. that said, an increasingly limber group of republicans are showing flekx 5eb89 on higher rates for top earners arguing raising rates on the rich will give them greater leverage on spending cuts. >> a lot of people are putting forth a theory and i actually think it has merit where you go ahead and give the president the 2% increase that he's talking about, the rate increase on the top 2%. and all of a sudden the shift goes back to entitlements. >> will i accept a tax increase as a part of a deal to actually solve our problems? yes. >> i don't know. perhaps democrats have been giving republicans yoga gift cards for secret santa this year. gop congressman tom cole now says he thinks a bill to extend just middle class tax rates would pass the house. >> i think if it got to the floor it would carry. look, that's my judgment but i

spent a lot of time counting votes and looking around. >> making a list, checking it twice. i'm delighted now to be joined by democrat ink congressman james clyburn with us from columbia, south carolina. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. thanks for having me. >> thank you for being there. with just three weeks left until agreement must be reached before the nation's economy starts to fall off the cliff, do you think republicans are finally coming to terms with the fact that they did, indeed, lose the election, and they've lost the argument over protecting tax cuts for just the top 2%? >> i think so. i think that all of us know that in this business of politics, you tend to try to find some way to save face on some issues. what i like to call a graceful exit, and i think that's what they're looking for now, and i would hope that the president will accommodate them because

all of this is about trying to find common ground, trying to reach a compromise on these issues. after all, that's what politics is all about. >> but congressman, when you say that you're hoping the president will accommodate them, what do you have in mind? >> what i have in mind is that the president will allow some face-saving devices to be put in place. that doesn't mean that he is to capitulate to what the republicans would like to see. nobody wants anybody to be insulted. look, this is the christmas season, and let us all be joyful and let's exchange gifts and let's go away from all of this back to our respective homes and enjoy the holidays, and i think we can do that in a way that everybody will feel that that he got something out of the deal. the president just said on the

clip that you've got that he is looking to compromise a little bit, and i think that he's made that clear throughout the entire time that he's been in office. >> certainly he has made it clear. the sound coming from republicans though has not been so clear and the head of the imf, christine lagarde, has issued dire warnings of what will happen to the global economy if agreement is not reached before the end of the year. sir, do you think lawmakers are taking those warnings seriously? does speaker boehner hear what the head of the im f is saying? >> yes, i think the speaker is taking it seriously, and i think a lot of republicans are taking it seriously, but i do think that there are some republicans that are very loud and seem to have oversized weight within the republican party. they don't understand any of this. they didn't come to washington to do anything for the american

people. they came on an ideological binge and they are staying on that. they are not going to come off of it. so i think that speaker boehner is going to have to cobble up 130 republican votes knowing full well about 45 or 50 of them he's never going to get, and we on the other side of the aisle are perfectly willing to come up with 125 or 130 votes on this issue and let's just meet halfway and get this done. that would give you 260 votes. you don't need but 218 for it to pass. but if you think you're going to do something and get your 218 just from the republicans, then that's not the way to do it. and i think that that's what the problem is here. speaker boehner is being threatened with that 218 votes from the republicans or he is subject to lose 125, 130 of them when he's trying to get

re-elected to his speakership. >> do you think he can fight that rebellion off, sir? because there are a number of people who are saying that they would rather replace him as speaker amongst republicans if he's prepared to compromise with the president. >> well, remember, we're talking about the 112th congress, not the 113th congress. now, the fact of the matter is after january 3rd, a new congress will be sworn in. 201 of them will be democrats, 234 will be republicans, and so if you look at the 234 -- my math is not that good -- but 117 of them would be 50% of the republicans. so i think if speaker boehner can keep 125, 130, or 130 is the number i have been using, 130, 40, or 50 of them on board, he'll be fine. but i think that he can do that.

i really don't believe he has to have the entire 218 votes coming from republicans to do this. in fact, it's much better for the country and it's much better for wall street if this is a significant bipartisan vote getting equal numbers from both sides of the aisle. >> congressman james clyburn, whose mathematics is excellent. thank you, sir, for joining us. >> well, thank you so much for having me. next, is conservative bill krystal right? has conservatism become a racket? stay with us. ...so as you can see, geico's customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful.

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. we didn't blow it because of mitt romney. we blew it because of a party which has refused to engage the

reality of american life. >> i will know the republican party is on the way back when they have the good sense to come out from breaking up the largest banks. >> absolutely agree. >> a lot of people seem tempted to write an obituary as the republican party, dead as a dodo. we couldn't help but wonder what be a obituary for the gop would look like. we gather today to mourn the death of the republican party. the party passed away on november the 6th reportedly of heart failure. a postmortem has indicated the party was suffering from dementia after railing against the country's demographic change. a report by maureen dowd attributes it's struggles to a stubborn refuse to adapt to a world where poor people, sick people, black people, brown people, and female people and gay people count. it's survived by fox news and

the heritage foundation. joining us now for our wake, goldie taylor, ron christie, who is a republican strategist, both with me here in new yorkened a dr. james peterson, an associate professor at lehigh university, a regular contributor to thegrio.com. welcome to all of you. ron, the gop has announced a new party, quote, grow the party and win. how effective will it be when the only recognizable names are ari fleischer and haley barbour's nephew henry who believe the polls are skewed against mitt romney. >> i don't agree with that. i think politics is about addition not subtraction. we did a very bad job with outreach with people of color, we alienated college educated women, the gay vote and the hispanic vote. if the republicans are serious about growing as a party and about moving forward not only for 2014 but the presidential election, we need to grow and expand our base and we didn't do

it this time. >> when the election was in process, why were you not standing up and condemning publicly some of the things that were repeatedly being said that were mildly racist, deliberately sexist, often divisive of people. why didn't you stand up and -- >> quite to the contrary. i have been very, very difficulty ebt db. >> you have been on the show regularly -- >> i have been on other networks and shows. >> we're not interested in those. >> of course not. >> sorry. >> but i've been very consistent about saying the republicans have done a terrible job about african-american outreach. it's just disgraceful. haven't done it. i have consistently gone on the sar and said when are we going to realize and say folks of people are going to want to vote for president obama for many reasons -- >> and calling him a food stamps president if you're a presidential candidate is knotts appropriate. >> i understand the sentiment db. >> it is difficult to show empathy when you're rejecteding a treaty that helps disabled

people solely because bashing the united nations is somehow popular amongst republicans. >> for some strange reason, i still haven't figured this out. disabilities and people with disabilities affects some 40 million plus americans. so i'm not sure why they would toss this demographic away, especially in the face of the sort of bipartisan support for passing the treaty and ratifying it and having former senator dole there on the floor. made it just a more case of sort of the republican grinch perception that we have about the party. again, and i would ask ron this, i'm not sure why the disabilities treaty was fodder for the usual party of no there in the senate this year. >> i can answer that. and i think this was a mistake on timing. 33 republicans sent a letter to the majority leader harry reid saying we shouldn't have a negotiation of a treaty during a lame duck session of congress. i disagree with our move here. you had a treaty that was negotiated by my former boss, george w. bush. you had robert dole out there. i think the republicans are

upset about diming but again disabilities. most of the major countries around the world have signed this. it should have been done. >> goldie, you in your very being would embody some problems that the republican party has. you're an intelligent woman of color. >> sure. >> what does the republican party have to do to make people like you feel it has something to say to to you? >> you know, i live in the american south and that's ground zero for this modern day gop. what i hear on the ground and i have worked both sides of the aisle. i have been open about that, people know it. >> sure. >> i think there is a policy issue, a set of policy issues, but there's also to a greater extent a messaging issue, and then, you know, in terms of just sheer infrastructure, obama for america put together a technologically driven grassroots campaign unlike any that has been seen in the history of electioneering.

republicans simply cannot catch up to that. they need a couple cycles to reband, repo significance, and rebuild. it's going to take quite some doing. i'm not sure if the same guy who sawed the coffin ought to be doing the autopsy. i think you need some smart people to come in and look at this. if you do the rebrand and repo significance. what's to say that base will accept and embrace it? i will tell you as an evangelical, i doubt it. >> professor peterson, i heard you coughing stwomewhat under yr breathe. >> goldie is right, it is going to take time. i'm not sure the political system we have has the patience for the republicans to overhaul themselves. they have to start with immigration reform, rooting out the tea party caucus within the house of representatives. i think that would go a long way towards where they need to be. they have to also understand, martin, that when you're talking about the 47%, when you're

talking about government support of people, you are talking about republicans, people who live in red states. they have to totally revise and reorder their rhetoric around issues of who sort of gets government support and the whole kind of idea of makers and takers. there's so much ideologically they have to do that i'm not sure they can do this. the democrats need to be looking at the same kind of issues, martin. when you look to the american populace broadly speaking, a lot of folk feel disenchanted with both political parties. while we're focusing on the republicans, i would also charge and challenge the democratic party to do some of the same before we get to the postmortem, before you get to the point where people are totally disenchanted. you have to make sure you are serving the constituencies that are putting you in office. >> rnc chair reince priebus who, of course, is running for a second term, says this is a wonderful moment, an opportunity. is it an opportunity? >> of course it's an opportunity. anytime you lose you need to reflect and look and see what happened in the last election cycle and recalibrate and move

forward. of course it's an opportunity. >> do you think republicans are prepared to face reality as part of that? because one of the things that we've heard is this almost inability to confront reality that they did lose the election and they lost it for the reasons that goldie was just giving, but no one is actually are a take lating that. all i hear is people like rick santorum doubling down. >> i don't know about doubling down, but republicans do live in reality. i don't know whether the democrats do. we are spending far too much money, we're spending 24% of gdp, the highest levels we have spent since 1948. we have created an entitlement system we're cratering under the weight of it. the professor can grumble and you can laugh at me. the fact of the matter is the united states is going bankrupt. republicans recognize that. we have always been the party of limited government. the democrats have to deal with reality. we can't keep being santa claus to everybody. we need to shut down -- >> i want santa claus to visit my public schools. if you're going to talk about cutting -- >> as opposed to visiting

afghanistan and iraq and giving people tax cuts. >> and the corporate subsidies. >> if you're going to do that, people don't want to live in poverty. >> no one does. >> i was raised on food stamps, i raised my children on food stamps. i went to school on pell grants. if you quick basic education, education disrupts poverty. if you disropt poverty, you disrupt violence. but republicans have been unable, unwilling to talk about some of the root cause that is face this country in the most critical ways rather than drum beating, grandstanding, the politics of resentment just won't play, just won't resonate with these audiences. when they hear it, they say, well, heck, they're talking about me. >> absolutely not true. i like you a lot, but absolutely not true. if you look at what happened in the bush administration and you look what's going currently, we are spending billions upon billions of dollars in education. i would hazard however that the

democrats aren't actually interested -- >> listen, listen -- >> here we go again. >> everybody else gets their point but the republican gets caught off. let me finish my point. >> go ahead. >> my point is republicans have said and the president opposed a voucher program in the district of columbia that actually helped low income people. why? because of the teachers union. i'm not going to sit and listen to you all and say republicans aren't willing to spend money on education. >> i didn't say -- >> you said that -- >> what i said was there has to be meaningful solutions. parent/teacher and student partnerships. >> i agree with that. >> that's what i mean. >> let's have an intervention by a man who is an educationalist. >> if we want to dedicate the segment to education, let's do so. the problem with voucher programs, even in washington, d.c., we have to be cautious about the threat of privatizing our public school system. that's going in the wrong direction. for that so-called entitlement society, can we please put it in the context of the ways in which waelt is concentrated at the wealth. the ways in which the housing

crisis caused by the 2% and different people who sort of truck in the world of finances destroyed the safety net in ways in which we have to give more food stamps, we have to give more support to folk because people are poor and inemployed because of the ways we have driven this economy which is a republican driven economy up to this point. let's put those things in context ron and then we can have a full discussion -- >> i would love to put it in context. >> professor peterson -- >> you have to talk about oil companies. you have to talk about corporate subsidies the real entitlements in this country. >> i wish we had two hours to do that. goldie taylor, the great ron christie, and dr. james peterson, thank you all. if jeb bush is the front-runner for 2016, why didn't he run in 2012? stay with us. [ male announcer ] playing in the nfl is tough. ♪ doing it with a cold, just not going to happen. ♪ vicks dayquil powerful non-drowsy 6-symptom cold & flu relief. ♪

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in washington special. >> if you're dancing right now, doing this dance, stop. >> back to the electric slide. >> if brian were three to four feet taller. >> the leg is hard. >> i repeat, zero tax increases. now, why would i do that? i had the leverage. simply put, i felt sorry for this man. >> there are a lot of things that are possible, but none of it is going to be possible if the president insists on his position. >> they've taken by milk and thrown it in the garbage. >> how much juice does boehner have? back in the day you could really twist arms -- >> jumped out and pelted me with eggs, rotten eggs. >> he can be the speaker of a bloc of republicans working with democrats or he can be the speaker of the hard right. >> you get what you want. you leave this poor, orange man alone. >> a week later right out of the blue she sends me a john dear letter. >> you have to give him a lot of credit. the republicans have plenty of negotiating strength. maybe they even have the upper hand.

>> mitt and ann romney were in vegas. >> wish you good luck tonight. congratulations on your race. >> thank you. >> and your fight. >> pacquiao last that night after getting knocked out cold. >> she is married to the most popular democrat in the country. if their examiner for in '16 is hillary clinton, trying to win that is truly the super bowl. the republican party today is incapable of competing at that level. >> let's get to our panel. jonathan capehart is an msnbc contributor and an opinion writer for "the washington post." maria teresa kumar is an msnbc contributor and president of voter latino and steve kornacki is my colleague and a senior writer for the salon.com. john, the president's inauguration hasn't taken place yet and the political pun dut tri sauf and running with a premat touour nomination for je

bush. if he's a brilliant candidate four years from now, why didn't he run this time? >> why didn't he run? >> yes. >> why didn't portman run? why didn't john kasich run? even in 2012 and as difficult as the situation was for president obama, those heavyweights within the republican party saw the writing on the wall, that it was going to be a very difficult race for even the best candidate, so they all held their fire for possibly 2016, so that's why you're seeing people talk about jeb bush and others. i left chris christie out of that mix as someone people were hoping would run, a strong candidate who would run in '12. that's why you're hearing the names come out now. jo ama >> amazing. newt gingrich, a man who knows a thing or two about the ladies, says hillary clinton would be close to unbeatable if she close to run. do you think we're looking at bush versus clinton in 2016? >> i think the picture on the democratic side this far out, there's a little more clarity to

it -- there's a lot more clarity than the republican side. if hillary clinton were to run in 2016 there are obviously no guarantees in life or politics, but within the democratic party for the democratic nomination, she will be a front-runner like we have never seen before. and i know we sort of said that about her in the run up to '08. she had two liabilities in '08 that were gone. she was considered too much of a polarizing figure. can she get independents to vote for her in the fall. the republicans who had been just relentless critics of her for 15 years in the '90s and the last decade, they have rolled over and lionized her as sort of this alternative 1i78 boll. this is the democrat we like. there's that and the other thing that dragged her down on the democratic side was the iraq war and i think largely that's forgotten now. i think her two big liabilities on the democratic side are gone and i think what u8d see is what you saw with al gore in 2000 where all these other prospective candidates look and say this isn't the time to run. >> you're not mentioning the

third prong of the tripod which is her performance as secretary of state. >> absolutely. >> what do you mean absolutely? you didn't even mention it. >> i'm just thinking of how formidable she would have been without those two factors. even if she was still a senator today, without those two factors, she'd be an overwhelming front-runner. throw that in and it's even more. >> the secretary of state has proved to be an outstanding advocate for women throughout her tenure. is this not the perfect opportunity for her to prove that the glass ceiling can indeed be shattered as far as the highest office in the land is concerned? >> well, i would actually say to steve the fourth, and that's the secretary of state position is actually softened hillary clinton. she's been made accessible and precisely because of the work she's done with women and children but also she's been able to demonstrate her tenacity but also her leadership on a global level where it's no longer is she part of the bill and hillary team now, but every time someone mentions clinton you first think of hillary and

then think of bill. that demonstrates not only has she been able to become more accessible, but more importantly she's been fierce all on her own as a leader. >> jonathan, let me play with james carville said about a possible hillary clinton candidacy. take a listen. >> every democrat i know says, god, i hope she runs, we don't need a primary. the democrats want her to run. i don't mean a lot of democrats, i mean a whole lot of democrats, like 90% across the country. >> okay, john. so when you look at the roster of likely gop candidates from bobby jindal, rick santorum possibly, chris christie, marco rubio, would any of them be able to front up against this formidable candidate if she were to run, hillary clinton? >> right. well, i mean, if the election were to be held right now, no, they'd be grounded into the dirt by her. her approval ratings are sky high. she's never been this popular

before. people who were for her in 2008 when she lost the nomination to president obama would definitely be there again. so, yeah, they'd have a hard time, but you know what? there are people within the democratic party who want to run for president, and i'm not quite sure that they would stand down necessarily -- >> who do you have in mind, john? >> well, new york governor andrew cuomo is rumored to want to run. maryland mayor martin o'malley is rumored to want to run. there are other people within the democratic party who would love for the chance to run for president in 2016. it would be an open seat. there would be no incumbent running. and so if hillary clinton is going to run for president from their perspective, they want her to make that decision sooner rather than later so that they can get their apparatus in place because unlike her, they can't just turn a latchkey and have everything, you know, fired up and ready -- >> millions of dollars, support

networks and so on. >> yes. >> steve, hasn't this actually been a total transformation in the life of the clintons? because you were referencing her success, hillary clinton's success. but bill clinton has now transformed his standing. he is now a global figure, too, isn't he? >> and also just their standing within the democratic party. the thing this struck me this summer was compared how the bts were treated by the entire democratic convention this summer versus 2008. in 2008 there were lingering hard feelings about how that obama/clinton primary had gone. >> which was a tough primary. >> absolutely. the star of the convention. bill clinton was the star. his job was to nominate obama for a second term in 2012. i really believe at the end of that speech if he had said, hey, while we're at it, can we nominate hillary for 2016 as the successor, by acclimation, that place would have done it. the change in mood toward the

kk clintons was amazing. >> can hillary count on the same level of support, especially if the republicans, for example, were to run say marco rubio? >> absolutely. i mean, if hillary clinton when she ran against president obama actually won the latino vote 2 to 1. more importantly, a lot of lee tonos will remember how prosperous they were under a clinton administration versus a bush administration. not only would they definitely fall in line behind hillary clinton, but also let's not forget that latinas outvote their male counterparts. so they will be leading the charge in the polling booth in favor of hillary clinton no doubt. >> wow, i cannot wait. already licking my lips at the thought of it. thank you all. next, the folks behind that hash tag fire boehner tell us who would be better than the great bronzed one. stay with us. >> if you want to find the best workers in the world, you want to find the best factories in the world, you want to build the best cars or trucks or any other product in the world, you should

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our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. speaker john boehner is waging a war on of two fronts over the fiscal cliff. on one side it's him versus the president. on the other it's speaker boehner versus his own party. one of the leaders of this fight is american majority action and we're delighted to say that the group alexander spokesman joins us now, ron meier. good afternoon. >> thanks for having me on. >> great to have you ron. you've endorsed three different candidates, i believe, for speaker, jim jordan, jeb hensarling, and tom price. mr. price says in a statement he's not running, but can you tell our audience why are you so sick and tired of speaker boehner? >> well, there's really two big reasons and they happened in the

last two weeks that really have been the nail in the coffin. one is the tax hikes. he's proposed basically to raise taxes on charities and job creators and he thinks that that's where his starting point is with president obama. >> hold on a second. let's be factual. i think what he said was that he was open to $800 billion in revenues but he did not specify the deductions. >> the only way you could get $800 billion in deductions is to go after the charitable deduction and the mortgage deduction. you're going to go after charities. salvation army said yesterday that they have had the biggest crowds coming in that they've ever seen. we're going to go after charities right now? i don't think that's the best place to be. i think what we need to start at is a place where we believe, we think taxes should be cut. that's what reagan did in a recession and guess what? by the end of his term, revenue doubled. we created 20 million jobs and youth unemployment dropped 43%. that's what we should start with. >> you're saying you don't like speaker boehner because he's considering putting revenues on

the table. you actually believe there should be a tax cut. >> well, the question is also -- you know, i think there should be a tax cut. we're in a recession, people my age can't find work. >> i understand that, ron. i'm not going to dispute that. we want to be clear. what you're saying is the president wins election, the presidential election, and he wins it on a debate about taxes, post-election exit polling reveals that in excess of 60% of americans support his view that taxes on the top 2% should go up, but your position is, no, we should cut taxes. >> the problem is you think we lost on messaging. i think we lost on tactics. the left knocked on doors, went to communities and talked to them. all the right does is try to use ads and robocalls to try to make our message. the most annoying tactics possible and we think people will believe what we're saying. i don't think people think that the job creators aren't doing enough, they need to be paying more, that we need to go out and say this is the employers fault

and think that's going to create jobs. people my age, we are looking for work and we know that we don't get jobs from the government because they're controlled by unions. we want real jobs in the private economy. >> but, ron, don't you think you're being a little bit harsh on the speaker. give the man credit. you know, he spent four years opposing everything the president tried to accomplish. he opposed the american jobs act that economists say would have created almost 2 million jobs and added a whole percentage point to economic -- >> the american jobs act that the senate didn't pass? >> he's done an excellent job on crushing almost everything the president has tried. i mean surely you're delighted with speaker boehner. >> let's be clear, the senate democrats have done everything to stop president obama. the moderates in the senate, the 13 that are up in 2014 haven't passed a darn thing because they can't run on it. that's who is stopping this. you can say boehner, any republican would stand up to obama's radical agenda, but the thing -- the fact of the matter is so are the senate democrats, so are the moderates running. they're saying don't bring that up. we're not going to vote on that.

don't bring up a budget we know we'll lose. a budget that never balances isn't going to work. >> we know how brilliantly paul ryan did during the presidential campaign and his magnificent two budgets but we'll put that to one side. you need 16 members to abstain from voting. >> and actually i talked to the house parliamentarian. we need them to vote for someone because of house precedent. >> can you get that number? >> they can vote anybody for speaker. >> can you get that number, ron? can you get that number? >> if speaker boehner agrees to raise taxes, especially on charities and job creators, yes, we can get that number. we will get that number and he will not be speaker if he agrees to raise taxes with president obama. i have talked to activists across the kun and they are already fired up at john boehner. if he agrees to this, it's over. we want someone who cares about job creation. who cares about getting people my age and young americans back to work. frankly, i don't think if john boehner is starting at we need to raise taxes and barely cut entitlement spending, i don't think that's going to work with us.

no. >> thank you so much. i should pension that the president actually was at the daimler factory announcing more jobs and more expansion. he's very much in support of job creation. thank you so much, sir. >> thank you for having me on. next, have we reached a tipping point in a crisis overseas. stay with us. but first, hampton pearson has today's market wrap. >> how are you? we've got stocks starting the week moving in a narrow trading range closing in on the plus side. the dow up about 14 points. the s&p up marginally. the nasdaq adding 8 points. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. more from martin bashir in a moment. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 this morning, i'm going to trade in hong kong.

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rebel fighters in syria are reported to have captured large parts of a major military base in the north of the country, but the rebels' success is raising anxieties. the attack on base 111 is said

to have been led by islamic militants and there are also reports that one of the leading rebel groups has ties to al qaeda. this comes as the u.n. enjoy says he's had constructive talks with both u.s. and russian officials about how to mobilize international action in order to secure a political solution to this ongoing conflict. nbc is live in cairo. we have seen video postings on the attack on the military base with rebels sporting black flags of jihadist militants. are these individuals from syria or is this conflict attracting militants from overseas? >> reporter: according to western intelligence officials, according to syrians and personally speaking from individuals i have spoken to over the course of covering this conflict, it is definitely attracting people from the region and overseas. i personally have met with rebel fighters that have come from libya, even some from egypt who

have wanted to go to syria to fight. they see this as a larger ideological conflict. the government is a staunchly secular one. they believe syria is engaged in what they consider a jihad or a holy war, and they're using that to rally muslims from all around the world to come and join the fight. western intelligence sources and others have reported on the participation of fighters from the caucuses, central asia, as well as from iraq and other neighboring countries. there's no doubt it is galvanizing many fighters to come and join what they say is a religious fight against secularism. >> we've heard talk of an increasingly desperate syrian government considering the use of chemical weapons against its own citizens. is this still a possibility or has president obama's warning been taken to heart by the authorities? >> well, it's extremely difficult to ascertain right now whether or not that is going to unfold like that. what we do know from western

intelligence officials who have told nbc news is chemical weapons have been mixed at least in various military facilities in and around various parts of syria, but at the same time we also know from the syrian government, they have categorically rejected they would use such weapons. the criticism that many would say is you simply cannot trust the syrian regime or take it for its word. when it's gotten desperate it has resorted to brutal violence and there's no doubt it has the capacity, whether it has the political willingness to do that is still uncertain. >> live from kay row. thank you so much. and we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] jill and her mouth have lived a great life. thank you so much. and we'll be right back. so i introduced jill to crest pro-health for life. selected for people over 50. pro-health for life is a toothpaste that defends against tender, inflamed gums, sensitivity and weak enamel. conditions people over 50 experience. crest pro-health for life.

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and in two of the prized ringside seats were mr. and mrs. willard mitt romney, clearly taking in the full spectacle at the mgm grand. pacquiao, whose career has been marked by an astonishing 54 wins and just 5 defeats had become accustomed to winning, just like mitt romney. in fact, it's reported that mr. romney visited pacquiao in his dressing room before the fight saying, hello, manny. i ran for president. i lost. sadly, the prefight meeting did not prove inspirational and manny pacquiao was knocked out in the sixth round. after the fight and despite countless blows to the head, the boxer was remarkably articulate about what had gone wrong. i started to get overconfident, he said. and i got hit by a solid punch. i did not expect that punch. clearly, neither did mitt romney as this photograph shows at the